Terrorists planning fuel bomb in UK, says report

May 15 2003

Britain has gone on high terrorist alert after suicide bombers killed at least 29 people in attacks on Western compounds in Saudi Arabia.

Scotland Yard has been put on alert for a possible fuel bomb attack in Britain by terrorists who are reportedly planning to hijack petrol tankers, while security experts have warned Britons to brace themselves for a September 11-style carnage.

Police have also openly discussed the prospect of having to gun down civilians fleeing a biological weapons attack on a British city to stop them spreading disease.

"It's not a question of if we'll have suicide bombings in this country, but when," terrorism expert Paul Wilkinson told the Daily Express.

The FBI has warned British police that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was planning to launch attacks in the United Kingdom, the Daily Mirror reported yesterday.

"The belief is that something will happen soon," the paper quoted an unnamed anti-terrorist detective as saying.

The warning follows yesterday's suicide bomb blasts in Saudi Arabia that killed at least 29 people, including an Australian.

Police in the UK have been warned to look out for any suspicious activity around petrol stations, lorries and underground fuel depots.

"What the police are looking out for is anything unusual, like two fuel tankers being brought together in a place where they would not normally be seen," the detective said.

"Nobody is panicking. We're just being very careful. Everyone knows al-Qaeda has the potential to cause mass devastation."